Fighting has escalated in and around Deir Ezzor in recent weeks, as ISIS aims to gain more territory in the area, and has seized a handful of villages in the area from the Syrian military. Syrian troops have aimed to launch a counter-attack, and these airstrikes appear to have been part of that.

It is unclear which nation launched the airstrikes, however, as they were not far from the Syrian airbase in Deir Ezzor Province, but some locals claimed the attackers were Russian. They insisted there were no ISIS forces anywhere near the site of the strikes, and that ISIS sites within the town weren’t hit.

Well over 100 people have been killed in the past week in fighting in and around Deir Ezzor, and the scramble to attack and counterattack has meant large numbers of the victims were civilian bystanders.